Sassanid Civil War
The Sassanid Civil War (365-) was a civil war fomented in the Sassanid Empire (present-day Iran) by the Eastern Roman Empire, who supported rival nobles against Emperor Shapur II of Persia. The Romans succeeded in placing Kuru, a rebellious noble, on the throne of Persia and drove the Sassanids north to Campus Sakae, but Kuru failed to produce a male heir and he died without giving Rome another puppet. War At war with Rome since 358 AD, the Sassanid Empire was strong, owning most of the Middle East. However, its upper class of nobles were divided, contesting power against Emperor Shapur II of Persia. After failing to capture Antioch, nobleman Buran was bribed by the Romans to join their cause, and shortly after, Rome also bribed Kuru to join them. Equitius Flavius, an Eastern Roman general, was sent with an army to meet up with them. In 368 AD they captured Hatra from the Sasanids, and Buran was left as governor as Kuru and Equitius Flavius advanced on the capital of Ctesiphon. They were joined in the cause by Kolchis, which launched a loyalist revolt in favor of the Eastern Empire, and they joined them. Also joining them was nobleman Narses, who was bribed into joining Rome by a diplomat. However, Narses' army was swiftly crushed, as it was near Ctesiphon already while the others were near Hatra. It had been forced to retreat, and before meeting up with the others, they were eliminated in Assyria. With the loss of Narses' army, the Romans lost some support from the Persian aristocracy, as they lost one of their generals that they could claim as the next Persian emperor. In 373 AD, after two years of fighting against small scattered Sassanid armies in the desert in front of Ctesiphon, Equitius Flavius and Kuru attacked Ctesiphon. In winter, after a season-long siege, they took the city by storm, and massacred 12,159 people, ensuring that Kuru could swiftly become emperor. However, the war was not yet over; the Sassanid Empire's heart still beat, so Equitius Flavius and Kuru set out to defeat the remnants of the empire. Equitius was killed in his expedition to Armenia, after coming across a Persian army under Melchior the Harsh in 382 AD. However, by 385 AD the Romans had made it to the gates of Artaxarta and they captured the city. With Armenia captured, in 395 AD Emperor Kuru moved on to attack the city of Phraaspa in Medea, and he captured the city after an assault. The Romans and Persians massacred the native Medians (and general Nabukudracara) and set the game schedule for daily to please the people with gladiatorial combat while avoiding resistance. The Romans sent reinforcements to assist Kuru, with Tertius Flavius leading an army to aid Phraaspa while other Roman generals were sent to govern Koltis and Artaxarta. Flavius captured Arsakia in 398 AD from Bahar, killing him and securing another Persian stronghold. The last Sassanid town left was Campus Sakae in the present-day Respublika Kalmykiya in Russia. When Kuru died in 408 AD, he left only his daughter Sabina and no male heir. The Sassanids regained the legitimacy of their title as Emperors of Persia, but at that point, Persia had fallen into Roman hands. Their war lasted for over a hundred years, with the two sides remaining at war but with little fighting after 398 AD. Category:Wars